Noah's Ark (Sweden)

This striking, highly-stylized Swedish poster is for the 1928 Warner Brothers feature, Noah’s Ark. Director Michael Curtiz was hired by Jack Warner for his new studio based on spectacular biblical adaptations Curtiz had filmed in his native Hungary, including Sodom and Gomorrah (1922), Samson and Delilah (1923), and the Exodus story, entitled Moon of Israel (1924). Curtiz would go on to direct Hollywood classics like Casablanca and White Christmas. Based on a story by Daryl F. Zanuck, Noah’s Ark takes the Old Testament disaster story and turns it into a romance, the type of adaptation Cecil B. DeMille made famous by book-ending a modern story with a story from the Bible. As Noah’s Ark was completed during the transition from silent film to sound, sound sequences were shot and edited into the film just prior to distribution. The film used the Warner Brothers’ Vitaphone system, which involved record discs cued to the film, making Noah’s Ark the first biblical epic to premiere with sound.